Category: FILMS&TV

The Lost Airbender

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So, I only started watching the animation a month or two ago, and only here and there. Nonetheless, I quite like it, and I think it’s for the same reason I’ve been enjoying The Muppet Show, as I mentioned recently. And this reason becomes even more apparent on watching the M. Night Shyamalan adaptation travesty, which I did the other night. I mean, even the creators of the series backed away carefully when asked what they thought of it. You know, that means it’s really bad. Well, it was. The funny thing is that I happen to agree with a …

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Film List… Thoughts, Anyone?

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So, I have just had a lit class dropped from my schedule and a film classes added, and while I cannot complain — the film class is an interesting opportunity, and a block of 3 hours which makes watching and discussing a film in a single go quite a lot easier — I am hurrying to put together a list of films we’ll be watching. It’s a mix of British and American films, through which students are supposed to be able to get a better handle on culture, history, and the commercial context of films. So far, my list includes …

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Inception and PKD

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After reviewing the book about PKD in my last post, I realized I’d said nothing about the film Inception, which I saw a few weeks ago. I’m going to come out and say what I think about the film, and what it means for cinematic SF, but save the spoilers (and much of my explanation) for the extended part of this post, so that those who wish can avoid the spoilers. (Note, if you’re reading on the RSS feed you might not have a cut. I’ll warn you.) So, what is Inception? It’s one of the most Phildickian films I’ve …

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이끼 (Moss)

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Well, it’s been a while since I saw a Korean film that I couldn’t quite understand with my limited Korean. (Of course some lines go over my head, but I usually get the gist.) This film, on the other hand, frustrated me like mad. I think part of the reason–probably because it’s based on a comic book–is that there is a lot of non-action action. What I mean by that is, there are a lot of sequences that serve the same function as action sequences, but which actually feature characters either standing still or movingly only a little. Frankly, the …

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Lost

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I’m not sure I can really be counted as a fan of the show Lost… I watched it somewhat obsessively into Season 3, and then during Seasons 4, 5, 6 waited till I could watch everything in one fell swoop or, um, gulp, perhaps. My ex and I used to watch it together, and when I last saw her, she asked me if I’d watched the finale of Season 6; that was when I realized I hadn’t even noticed it starting up again, and the show had finished, and maybe I’d like to check it out. Yet whenever I watched …

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Tiny Thought…

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So I’m reading this book — for the purposes of reviewing it — and the strange thought hit me: for those who have seen the Korean film 엽기적인 그녀 — known in English as My Sassy Girl, though the English title is meh. (The Korean title, “Yeopgijeogin Geunyeo” is more like, “That Weirdo Girl” or “That Bizarre Girl,” as I understand it. 엽기적인 hjas dictionary entries for “bizarre” and “grotesque” but the phrase is also used for, for example, “pulp fiction” or the Korean name for Mashimaro.) Anyway, the thing I noticed was this: the last word of the title …

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Splice — another science-illiterate movie.

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If you are worried about spoilers? You need to read this post, so that you don’t spoil your bloody afternoon, the way I did by paying money to watch this crap. Wow, and I thought genetics was a branch of science and industry where people were researching how genetics works, how to design medicines and other technologies based on those discoveries, and hopefully figure out how to regrow organs or limbs, fight aging, combat genetically-heritable illness, and that kind of thing. I mean, yeah, there’s also all kinds of stuff I don’t like in the biotech industry; most people I …

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I Love You Philip Morris

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Just saw this movie. Not sure if it’s in cinemas anymore… or, in other parts of the world like the USA, whether it’s in cinemas yet — Wikipedia says it comes out (pardon the pun) in the USA later this month — but I recommend it. This film has Jim Carrey swerving back and forth across the line of serious and funny, and serves as a reminder that he actually is a pretty damned good actor when he’s given the room to be. Likewise, Ewan McGregor’s acting is also outstanding. I could hear people sobbing in the cinema during a …

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Religious Freedom, and What Kind of Hero We May Need: A Footnote to Five more on Kick-Ass

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This is a follow-up to a series I started last week, which begins here but is not for the faint of heart. This post as well is not for the faint of heart. The series, if you’re interested, began here. Okay, I know it’s an old headline, but how does it happen that a Catholic Cardinal and the Mormon church agree on something… especially on this? Okay, so, as a non-American… how does gay marriage threaten religious freedom in America? Seriously. Set the histrionics aside, the screaming and shouting and wild eyes, and explain it. Because, frankly, unless “religious freedom” …

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Five more on Kick-Ass, Part 5

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This entry is part 5 of 5 in the series Five More on Kick-Ass: A Response to Criticisms of the Film

[UPDATE: For the first twelve hours this post was online, somehow an earlier draft went live, instead of the final version. I’ve just restored the autosaved final draft. So this post looks different than it did ten minutes (or ten hours) ago.] ORIGINAL POST: This is the final post in a series that began with Part 1. I recommend beginning there, and following the links at the end of each section to work through the following posts in the series (of which there will be five). Here we are, at the end of an evisceration. Feels like the end of the …

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